Jing finds himself drawn into helping out a land ruled by a mysterious woman whose iron fisted laws keep her people living in terror. Will good triumph over evil, or is it really that simple? Read on and find out! You don't need to have seen all of the

A/N: There are
no major plot spoilers in this story, and if you've never seen Jing
King of Bandits, all you need to know is that Jing is a master thief
and goes around having adventures in a fantastical land with his
sidekick, Kir, a talking bird.

To those of you who are
familiar with the series, I've only seen the first several dvds of
the anime series, so I apologize in advance if the names I've used
for my OC s are already taken. There are only so many alcoholic
beverage names to choose from!

CHAPTER ONE: PROLOGUE:

"Hey Jing, what about
here?"

Kir was tired of
flapping. Alighting on a rocky outcropping, he gestured with his
wing at the rough semicircle of boulders.

"Sure, Kir. We'll
stop here for the night," Jing agreed amiably. He set to work
finding firewood. Kir flapped down from his rock and began hopping
around, collecting twigs to use as kindling.

"Not that I wouldn't
rather be in a nice cushy inn like last night, you know. Did you see
the physique on that chambermaid?" Kir's words came out muffled
by the wood in his mouth. "I think she liked me!"

"She smacked you in
the beak with a towel, Kir," Jing smiled over his load of firewood.

"Mmr wr um wrv rap."

"Huh?"

"Ptooie." Kir spat
his twigs out in the middle of a small circle of stones in the center
of the clearing. Evidently the area had been used before as a
campground. "I said, 'that was a love tap'! Trust me, that
girl couldn't keep away from me!"

With that the
diminutive bird sat down on the ground, only to shoot up again a
second later. "Yowtch!"

"What is it?" Jing
asked curiously, ambling over and dumping his wood into the ring,
coming to a stop by the crow who was rubbing his posterior with an
aggrieved look on his face.

"I sat on something
sharp."

Jing squatted and
pulled something out of the dirt, holding it up for Kir to see.
"It's an arrowhead," he told him. "Look, they're all
around."

Kir glanced about and
saw them, sticking out of the earth at intervals like sharks'
teeth. "Hey, how'd they get here?"

Brushing dirt off the
arrowhead in his palm with his thumb, Jing gazed at it as he spoke.
"There was a battle around here about fifteen years or so ago.
We're right on the edge of Zenithria. Fifteen years ago members of
the former royal family took back their capitol city from the Absolut
family who'd taken it from them a decade before. These arrows must
be left over from that time."

"Yawn." Kir
commented stridently. "Ancient history is boring. All those dates
and battles…"

"Not this battle,"
Jing flicked his companion a glance. "It's said that the woman
who took back the throne was a 'Creature Caller'."

Jing tossed the
arrowhead away. "A Creature Caller, sometimes also known as a
Creature Creator, is a woman from the royal line who can create
fantastical animals, monsters even, and control them. They say that
the war was won by such creatures. Since then Zenithria closed
itself off. It discourages visitors and keeps to itself."

"A woman, huh? Is
she pretty?"

Jing stifled a smile.
Kir had a one-track mind when it came to women. "No one knows.
Once victory was assured the Dark Lady shut herself up in the royal
palace's tower and let her monsters run the kingdom. She doesn't
come out much. Her monsters enforce the laws. At least that's
what I heard."

Kir cocked his head and
squinted. "Speaking of hearing, do you hear that?"

"What?" Jing's
grey eyes took on a watchful aspect. Kir might be a lecher, but his
senses were sharp, and Jing had come to depend on them.

The bird stuck his head
out and leaned to the right, cupping a wing around his ear. "I
hear someone crying. Sounds female. Yipee! Another damsel in
distress to be rescued! I can't wait to be showered with kisses of
gratitude!" And with that, Kir took off flying through the trees.

Sighing, Jing rose to
his feet and followed, running lightly behind the girl-obsessed bird.
Life with Kir was always eventful. Together they followed the sound
of sobbing.

o-o-o

SAME CLEARING, 15 YEARS
PREVIOUSLY

An old woman, dressed
in traveling robes, her grey hair falling wild down her back, moved
silently through the trees, skirting the campsite where the mercenary
troops gathered around the campfire cooking their nightly stew. They
were a nuisance, but necessary, at least until Mirin got serious
about the war and made some more obedient warriors. That girl had
potential. She was the strongest Creature Caller ever born to the
family.

Absinthe once again
cursed her nephew for taking the girl from the family. Well,
Absinthe got the girl back and at long last she'd take back what
was rightfully hers – the Zenithrian throne.

Now someone else
threatened to take what was hers, and she wasn't about to stand for
it. Moving carefully through the trees she kept out of sight of the
sentries, and kept well away from the command tents she'd set up a
week ago as she gathered troops on both sides of Zenithria, preparing
her pincer movement. The Absolut family wouldn't know what hit
them. She'd heard they were frantically trying to hire mercenaries
as well, but Absinthe had already snapped up the best in three
kingdoms. She allowed a grin to steal over her features,
accentuating the wrinkles in her face and allowed her feral nature to
show, in a way she couldn't afford to do around Mirin.

Mirin was a foolish
girl, and Absinthe was about to find out the extent of her folly.

There up ahead was the
half ruined woodsman's cottage where Cervasa, the youngest of her
mercenary captains, had set up camp. His men were scattered around,
but not too close to the cottage. Absinthe figured as much. He
wouldn't want them around to witness his wooing of her grand-niece.
The man had been sniffing around Mirin for weeks now. Absinthe knew
he'd make his move when he thought she'd gone to inspect the
troops at the other end of the kingdom. He'd underestimated her.

Light spilled from a
window at the back of the cottage. Absinthe drew closer, like a moth
to a flame, and settled by the window, screened by a bush. Through
its leafy branches she had the perfect view of the cottage interior
and could hear and see everything.

Inside the cottage
Mirin, her grand-niece, stood by Cervasa. The girl's hands were
clasped in his. A bench and table stood in the center of the room, a
knife, fork and the crumbled remains of cheese and bread on the
single plate all that remained of the young mercenary's dinner.
The candlelight from a rough iron candelabra on the table next to
them caught the light in Mirin's warm brown eyes and lifted
shimmers from her long dark hair. Absinthe had once had hair like
that, and a sharp envy for the girl coursed through her.

"I can't leave
her," Mirin said softly, clutching Cervasa's hands. "Not now
that our army is finally ready…Absinthe has been planning this for
so long. In just a couple of days our forces will be ready to
attack."

"Don't you mean
YOUR forces?" Cervasa asked. He was a young man, with chestnut
colored hair. He had a stocky build and sported a well-trimmed beard
and moustache. Absinthe smirked. To a foolish young girl like
Mirin, Absinthe supposed he looked dashing. Absinthe however, saw
him for what he was, a mercenary on the make. He thought to steal
her niece away, to get her to make monsters for him so he could
become the most powerful mercenary around. She narrowed her eyes and
listened as Cervasa continued.

"You're the one who
can create those creatures, not her. She's using you, Mirin. You
have no idea what war is actually like. Believe me, you don't want
any part of it."

Mirin leaned forward
over their linked hands, her body language beseeching. "Try to
understand, Cervasa. She needs me. How can we defeat the forces of
chaos if I'm not here to help her take the city? It's my
destiny. I have to do this."

Cervasa leaned forward
too, so that their faces were only inches apart. His voice grew more
urgent as he went on. "You only think it's your destiny, Mirin.
And why? Because Absinthe told you so since you were a little girl.
Can't you see that she's using you for her own purposes? She's
filled your head full of talk of 'destiny' We have to leave, now,
while she's off checking the troops on the far side of the city."

Mirin pulled her hands
out of his and stepped back. Absinthe could see the disappointment
in his eyes as he released his grip and let go.

"You're wrong,"
Mirin said, shaking her head slowly. "She's not using me, she's
helping me to fulfill my destiny. Without me, chaos will prevail in
Zenithria. I was born to bring order to my kingdom, and Absinthe is
helping me to do it. Crime has doubled under the Absolut family.
The people are in danger!"

She'd come out
without her usual hair tie to keep her locks in check, and one of
them fell forward. She raised a hand to push it back over her
shoulder absently as she continued.

"You know that after
my parents died, my brother and his wife raised me. They had a
little boy, my nephew. I lived with them. I didn't know that
father once lived in the palace, or that I was of royal birth. I was
happy there, but my life was ordinary. Then Absinthe came. She told
my brother Sake and I that we were royal. She told me that I was
special, that I was the last in a long line of Creature Callers, the
first in generations to bear the birthmark so strongly."

Mirin's hand stole to
the back of her neck, where Absinthe knew the cross shaped mark was
embedded in her skin. It was the only color on her otherwise perfect
alabaster complexion.

"My parents fled the
palace when they saw the mark. They wanted me to escape my destiny,
my duty, and because of that they died."

"I thought you said
they died of influenza." Cervasa interjected dryly.

Absinthe narrowed her
eyes at his flippant attitude. Making fun of the story she'd
carefully inculcated in Mirin's mind wouldn't win him any points.

Her grand-niece
frowned. "It was fate's way of punishing them for taking me away
from the palace."

"Darling, if you'd
been in the palace when the Absolut family came storming in, you'd
have been killed with everyone else. Your father was wise to take
you, your mother, and brother away when he did."

Stubbornly, Mirin shook
her head. "Maybe at first, but he didn't return me to Absinth,
he never tried to find the rest of the family and take back what was
ours. He had a duty, I have a duty, and I will not forsake mine. I
belong in that palace. Absinthe said so. The longer it takes me to
get there, the more innocent people will die."

"What do you mean?"
Cervasa asked incredulously.

Mirin stepped over to
the table and began pressing her fingers against it. It was
something she did when she was upset. Absinthe grinned. Cervasa was
forcing her to explain herself, to remember the worst time in her
life. He was indeed a fool, because Mirin would end up resenting him
for making her relive that pain.

"Great-Aunt Absinthe
and I are the only ones left of our family now. When she came to us
to beg my brother to let me go with her, so she could train me in the
ways of creature calling, he refused. She left and the next week
when I came home from school I found them dead. My brother, his
wife, even Sake Jr., all of them were dead. All my sister in law's
jewelry was missing. A thief must have killed them. There was so
much blood. The villagers sent word to my aunt and she came and got
me. If I'd just gone with her the first time she came, my brother
and his family might still be alive. It was fate's way of showing
me how badly I was needed to restore peace and order to the land."

Mirin stepped back from
the table, sadness in her eyes as she looked Cervasa. "You can't
ignore destiny. I have to prevent anything like that from happening
ever again. My destiny is a sacred duty, and I can't ignore it.
Every time my family tried to ignore it they died, don't you see?"

Cervasa gestured
sharply. "All you know is what Absinthe told you. What if
she's…wrong?"

"She can't be
wrong. My parents are dead, my brother and his family are dead. How
can that be a coincidence? It's fate trying to set things right."

"Maybe it's not
coincidence. Did you ever think of that?" Cervasa and Mirin stood
like statues, his words creating a leaden silence between them.
Absinthe held her breath. This was bad, very bad. Then Mirin
grimaced, breaking the spell.

"What do you mean?"
Genuine puzzlement spread across her face. Absinthe let her breath
out. Her training held. Mirin found it impossible to doubt her.

Cervasa seemed to
realize it too. He started to speak, stopped, shook his head gently
and stepped forward to cup her face in his hands.

"Do you love me,
Mirin?"

"You know I do,"
she whispered back to him.

"Then come away with
me. Come away and test this 'destiny' theory of yours. I may
just be a mercenary your aunt hired, but I love you, and I swear I'll
protect you. If nothing happens then you'll know you can
escape this destiny of yours."

"But Absinthe plans
to storm the palace in three days' time. She can't make it to
the top of the tower without my help, and you know what the prophecy
says, 'He who reaches the last level of the tower will destroy the
old rule and lead all Zenithria'."

"You've created
enough monsters for her to use. Why not let her have them? I'll
protect you, Mirin. Leave the monsters with her and come away with
me. You have to decide now. Do you want to live with her in that
tower or do you want to live with me?"

They stared at each
other. Absinthe ground her teeth together. She recognized that
look.

"With you," Mirin
said at last. "I want to be with you."

Cervasa smiled in
relief. "Then let's go."

Mirin nodded firmly.
"Let me go get my cloak from my tent."

"I'll buy you a new
one."

Mirin took a step back,
smiling gently. "It's got my diary in its pocket. I'll be
right back," she promised, and slipped out the door.

Absinthe gave her a few
minutes, then stole around to the front of the cottage, her brow
furrowed in intense concentration.

"What the…?"

Rounding the corner and
passing in through the doorway, Absinthe surveyed a most satisfying
sight. Cervasa was restrained, his arms and legs clasped in the iron
grip of four Absinthes. Another Absinthe, a mirror image of the
original, held a knife to his throat.

It taxed Absinthe's
abilities to their limit to be able to create five more copies of
herself, and copies were all that she could do, and only of herself.
For the millionth time she cursed her inability to do more with the
watered down version of the family gift she'd been given.

She felt a bead of
sweat run down the side of her face. Unlike Mirin, who could create
vast numbers of creatures and maintain them without effort, it took a
lot out of Absinthe to make even a few copies of herself. She'd
have to make this quick, especially since she was already maintaining
a copy at the other side of the city to give herself an alibi. No
one knew of Absinthe's ability, not even Mirin. Her pride would
not allow her to be compared to her infinitely more gifted niece.

"Did you really think
I'd let the last Creature Creator from my family fall into your
hands, Cervasa?" she sneered.

"Not the last one,
obviously." Cervasa pulled against the women gripping his arms,
stopping only when his motion caused the knife at his throat to score
a thin red line that beaded up and began to bleed.

Absinthe shrugged. "I
do copies only. Mirin is the strongest of us all. Only she can
create literally anything she can dream up."

"Her dreams are
nightmares because of you! She's created hideous beasts from
legends to serve your twisted ambitions. Legends you told her! You
don't care about her, you only want your throne back!"

How impassioned the
young were. Absinthe stared coldly into the eyes of the young man
who stood in the way of her dreams of power. "Perhaps, but you
won't be around to see it. Your death will simply prove to Mirin
once again the folly of avoiding her destiny. This tragedy will bind
her even closer to me, and she'll never suspect that I had anything
to do with it since I, or rather an image of myself, am out with the
troops right now. You should have stayed away from my niece,
Cervasa. From now on I'll have to depend on monsters. Humans are
so unreliable."

"What do you know of
humans? You're the real monster here!" Cervasa snarled. "Don't
think I don't know you killed Mirin's brother to get her away
from him. What do you intend to do with her once you've got your
way? Kill her too?"

Absinthe laughed.
"Kill her? Certainly not, she's far too useful. But that
doesn't mean I'll be sharing the throne with her. There's a
lovely little basement in the palace. She can live there, writing
her silly little laws, and keeping my army of creatures under
control. You, however, are of no use to me whatsoever. Goodbye,
Cervasa."

Had anyone been near
the cottage, they would have heard a choked cry turn into a watery
gurgle, then silence. They would have seen the bent figure of an old
woman peer around the doorway, then escape into the shadows.

A few moments later,
they would have seen a young girl, about seventeen, with coal black
hair and fair skin, rushing quietly up to the cottage. They would
have seen her enter, heard her scream out Cervasa's name, then
heard the heartbroken sobs emanating from the building, but no one
was close enough to hear, and Mirin cried throughout the night until
discovery came with the dawn of the next day.

TO BE CONTINUED…

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